Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera

Canícula—the dog days—a particularly intense part of the summer when most cotton is harvested in South Texas. In Norma Cantú's fictionalized memoir of Laredo in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, it also represents a time between childhood and an as yet unknown adulthood. Actual snapshots and the author's re-created memories allow readers to experience the pivotal events of this world—births, deaths, injuries, fiestas, rites of passage. This popular book won the 1995 Premio Aztlán.

"A personalized ethnography that feels as familiar as my own family album, and as touching."—Ana Castillo

"Intimate as a poem, and as large as the Texas sky, these stories are at once diminutive and grand."—Sandra Cisneros